Il cappello di paglia di Firenze (literally translated as The Florentine Straw Hat but usually titled in English language producations as The Italian Straw Hat) is an opera by Nino Rota

Nino Rota

Nino Rota was an Italian composer and academic who is best known for his film scores, notably for the films of Federico Fellini and Luchino Visconti...

 to an Italian-language libretto by the composer and Ernesta Rota, based on the play Le chapeau de paille d'Italie by Eugène Labiche

Eugène Marin Labiche

Eugène Marin Labiche was a French dramatist.-Biography:He was born into a bourgeois family and studied law. At the age of twenty, he contributed a short story to Chérubin magazine, entitled Les plus belles sont les plus fausses. A few others followed , but failed to catch the attention of the...

 and Marc Michel.

The opera premièred at the Teatro Massimo

Teatro Massimo

The Teatro Massimo Vittorio Emanuele is an opera house and opera company located on the Piazza Verdi in Palermo, Sicily. It was dedicated to King Victor Emanuel II....

, Palermo

Palermo

Palermo is a city in Southern Italy, the capital of both the autonomous region of Sicily and the Province of Palermo. The city is noted for its history, culture, architecture and gastronomy, playing an important role throughout much of its existence; it is over 2,700 years old...

 on 21 April 1955. The first performance in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 was at the Santa Fe Opera

Santa Fe Opera

The Santa Fe Opera is an American opera company, located north of Santa Fe in the U.S. state of New Mexico, headquartered on a former guest ranch of .-General history:...

 in 1977 with Stephen Dickson

Stephen Dickson

Stephen Dickson was an American baritone who had an active career in operas and concerts from 1972 through 1990. He was active with the United States's most important opera companies during the 1980s, sharing the stage with many notable singers like Luciano Pavarotti, Jessye Norman, and Renata...

 as Emilio. The first New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 performance, starring Vincenzo Manno as Fadinard, took place in 1978.

However, the most famous rendition of the opera was a cinematographic one, shot in Cinecitta and conducted by Rota himself, in 1975. It starred the famous mezzo-soprano Viorica Cortez

Viorica Cortez

Viorica Cortez is a noted Romanian-born mezzo-soprano, later French by naturalisation. Starting her operatic and concert career in the mid-1960s, she went on to become one of the most prominent female performers of the '70s and '80s...

, as well as other respected opera singers, such as Ugo Benelli, Alfredo Mariotti, Mario Basiola and Giorgio Zancanaro

Giorgio Zancanaro

Giorgio Zancanaro is an Italian baritone, particularly associated with the Italian repertory, especially Verdi.He studied in his native Verona with Maria Palanda, and was revealed at the Verdi Competition in Busseto in 1969. He made his official operatic debut the following year in Mantua, as...

. The musical recording has been released as a CD by BMG Italia. Copies of the film, quite rare to find, make fine collector's items.